Learning One New Thing A Day

My maternal grandfather, Mr Kuah Gim Teik, retired school headmaster embodied this value to his dying day and inspired many of his ex-students, some of his children and grandchildren to continue this value.

Even when he had a stroke and became half paralyzed, he fought back and trained daily and diligently until he regained the use of his paralyzed left, could walk with the help of a cane and could talk. For the next 18 years until his death at 85 in 1996, he continued to learn. He learnt one new Bahasa Malaysia word a day and played word games with Kevin when he came home from school. He also undertook to teach himself the then-new Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin and recruited another grand-daughter in Mandarin word games, believing like most great educators that games reinforce learning.

His personal motto was: "The day you stopped learning is the day your mind deteriorate and you're fit for the grave."

This blog is written for all the descendants of Mr Kuah Gim Teik, that you may remember his legacy and stay true to his learning spirit.

A Blog A Day

If you declare or profess (as I do) that one of your values in life is to "learn one new thing a day", one of the methods to ensure and keep track of that would be to write a blog a day. Or if some entries are not fit for publication and public perusal* - to consign your insights in your private journal.

I used to keep daily journals when I was young and I have a whole chest of scribblings - testament to my mental and intellectual growth. As I grew older and moved house quite a bit, I kind of gave up journal keeping, mistakenly rationalizing with myself that if I continue writing at such a prodigious rate, by the time I die, my heirs or executors would have to contend with so many journals to make such a bonfire as to put Guy Fawkes to shame.

In today's digital age, such an excuse cannot hold water anymore. So Heidi, write on.

* Public Perusal - tomorrow's blog